


When You're Gone

by bigplans4thatfish



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Gen, Post Episode: s07e05 The Angels Take Manhattan, Weeping Angels - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 12:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigplans4thatfish/pseuds/bigplans4thatfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: A year after the Angels took Manhattan (and Rory) and Amy left the Doctor's life, how is Team TARDIS coping with the loss?</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You're Gone

“Amy, come see this,” Rory called out to her.  
“What?”  
“There’s… a gravestone here, for someone the same name as me.”  
“What?” she repeated, this time with a hint of disbelief and a nervous laugh.  
Suddenly, she saw it. She saw the Angel with its hand held out, and in that same exact moment Rory disappeared from right in front of her.

Amy jolted up from her deep sleep with tears welling up in her eyes. She had had that same nightmare dozens of times in the past year but it felt new every damn time. Realizing she was in her bed, she rested her heavy head in her hands. She stopped reaching over the bed for Rory quite some time ago, but not without spending several months’ worth of mornings instinctively searching for his body next to hers every time she woke.

Amy had parted a year ago with TARDIS life and her raggedy man in the aftermath of Rory’s time jump. She knew she couldn’t just run from going home to life without her husband and, quite frankly, didn’t think she’d be up for grand adventures in time and space after losing him. The Doctor gave her up reluctantly and she returned to the now empty flat that her and Rory used to share, back to her normal job, normal friends, normal life.

Something just wasn’t quite right in Amy anymore. She found herself withdrawn and oddly tired most days, just not really wanting to get out of bed to face life. She put on a show for everyone with a smile on her face despite the emptiness in her heart, which of course her closest friends and family saw through but no one talked about since no one felt right bringing up Rory’s absence. What no one even imagined is the little habit Amy had picked up to numb the pain.

“What harm could a couple glasses do?” she’d say to herself some nights. Two drinks would turn into three, though. Then three drinks would turn into four, and over the months it would turn into nine or ten glasses, two or three bottles of wine. The same wine they had at their wedding reception, as coincidence would have it. Alcohol could only temporarily numb the pain but it was just enough to get Amy through day after day alone.

The Doctor, on the other hand, went out on adventures with River, both trying to hide the damage done to their hearts by the loss and departure of the Ponds. Fortunately, adrenaline was enough to keep them both going, and sometimes the Doctor even forgot about the space in the TARDIS usually taken up by his beloved humans. The Last Centurion and the Girl Who Waited. The little girl who sat all night in her garden for the raggedy man surely never anticipated what could come of travels with the Doctor, the dangers that came along with the fun times.

Amy and the Doctor both blamed themselves for Rory’s end, naturally. The Doctor shouldn’t have brought them into the Angels’ way; Amy shouldn’t have gotten Rory into a life with the Doctor. The Doctor should have been more cautious after they appeared in the graveyard, Amy should have noticed the Angel directly behind him. They both had their reasons, none of it logical, but there was no rationalizing with either of their stubborn, grieving selves.

After spending years healing his own broken heart, seeing every sight he could possibly see just to keep moving and keep running, River suggested the Doctor give Amy a visit, just to check up on her. Amy had chosen to leave them and was very insistent about it at the time but he couldn’t see the harm in just stopping by for a minute or two. A child-like smile spread across his face and he ran over to the TARDIS console.

“Alright, let’s go see how mummy’s doing, shall we?”  
“Now that’s the man I love,” she replied playfully.  
“Oh, stop it,” he replied just as impishly.  
Ah, married life.

He set the TARDIS for Amy’s street, 2013 and off they went.

Meanwhile, Amy was spending that night in front of the telly with a few movies and a bottle of wine. Knowing it was the anniversary of Rory’s death, friends had insisted that she go out to the pub with them and try to have some fun to get her mind off things, but she politely declined, barely feeling well enough to get off the sofa.

So she settled in after work and popped in a DVD. She was overcome with an emptiness in her chest, an indescribable feeling that she had become far too familiar with. Without hesitation, she ran to an equally familiar crutch and poured herself a glass of wine. Before she knew it, she had downed five glasses in the course of an hour and a half long movie. Thinking nothing of it, she poured another glass to sip on while searching for something to eat. Poking around the kitchen, Amy found an old dusty bottle of scotch that a friend had given her as a birthday gift. Ay, why not? she thought to herself. Completely forgetting about getting something solid into her stomach, she wiped some of the dust off the bottle and brought it back to the couch for movie number two.

Amy poured scotch into her wine glass and gave it a sip. It was much stronger than she was used to, making her nose scrunch up, but by the bottom of the glass she was fine with it. And feeling a new buzz and warmth that she liked. She poured another glass and immediately downed half of it like a shot. Damn, she was getting the hang of that fast. A half hour later, the bottle was a third empty.

Just then, Amy heard an all too memorable sound out on the street outside her door. It couldn’t be, though. She’d made it clear that she was giving up life on the TARDIS, so surely the Doctor wouldn’t be coming around there anymore. She knew that nothing else made a noise quite like that materializing sound, however, so she got up off the couch to look out the window. Or at least that was the plan. As soon as she stood up, Amy immediately felt the effects of the scotch she’d been guzzling and fell to the floor. On the way down, she cracked open her forehead on the coffee table and was now laid collapsed on the carpet.

The Doctor and River stepped out of the TARDIS and into the street, just as they remembered it, and walked up to the front door of Amy’s flat. The Doctor had a bad feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t put his finger on. He rang the doorbell hesitantly and patiently waited for the comforting face of his little Amelia to appear before him. A couple of minutes went by with no answer. 

“I guess she’d not home. We’ll just have to try back some other time,” he said to River, sharply turning around to head back to the TARDIS doors.  
“I don’t know, Doctor. Her car’s in the drive. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”  
“Me either,” he replied and frantically pointed his sonic screwdriver at the lock on her door.

As they stepped into the flat, their eyes were instantaneously drawn downward at Amy’s body lying limp on the floor and the small pool of blood staining the carpet next to her head. The Doctor’s face went pale and his hearts skipped a beat as River ran straight to Amy’s side, hiding the panic in her eyes. He quickly snapped out of his state of shock and ran to Amy’s other side, desperately waving his screwdriver over the length of her body while River manually checked her vitals.

“She’s still breathing,” River said as calmly as possible.  
“For now,” the Doctor replied with more than a hint of panic in his voice. “Her alcohol level is astonishing. Quick, roll her onto her side.”

River complied and then slowly looked up at the Doctor. They both saw the gash on her forehead and the bottles on the table and knew exactly what happened. Poor Amelia Pond was falling apart. The Doctor suddenly felt exceptionally guilty for not checking up on her sooner, selfish for healing his own broken hearts before helping Amy heal hers. And then he had an idea…

River knew just what he was thinking, too.  
“Doctor! Her best bet is to get her to the hospital right away.”  
“There isn’t time!” he yelled angrily. Then he nearly whispered, “You know I’m just a sentimental idiot,” as he placed one hand on Amy’s arm and the other on her forehead, running his thumb over the still-bleeding wound.

His hands began to glow with regeneration energy. At this point, River just sat back on her heels and watched. The glow extended in wisps from Amy’s head down to her feet. The Doctor was giving years off of his life to heal his dear friend as instinctively as he breathes.

The cut disappeared and Amy slowly opened her eyes with a few rough coughs. The Doctor and River felt a wave of relief rush over them as Amy slowly came to. Looking slightly embarrassed, Amy looked up at River and then into the Doctor’s eyes. There were still tears welled up on the brim of his eyelids.

“What happened?” Amy asked, genuinely confused.  
“Oh, Amelia,” he answered with a sigh. “I’m so sorry.” He could hardly get the words out as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, never wanting to let go.  
River responded for him, “You were passed out and bleeding on the floor when we came in. We may have sonic’d our way in when you didn’t answer the door. Just came to check up on you.”  
The Doctor interrupted her, “I used my regeneration energy to heal a cut on your head and clear the alcohol from your bloodstream. Oh, Pond, what have you gotten yourself into?”

Realizing the sacrifice he made, Amy started to cry in the Doctor’s arms. River stroked Amy’s hair silently, trying to comfort her and let her work through her emotions. 

“Doctor, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live life alone. I can’t live without Rory.”  
“I know, Pond. I know.”  
“Oh, mummy, no one expected you to do this on your own,” River added.  
“I’m sor—“ Amy bit her lip to stop herself from crying again. “I’m sorry.”  
“What do you say we head back to the TARDIS? There’s always room for one more if you’d like to come with us. Maybe just one trip and we can come right back to the flat, have a nice cup of tea,” the Doctor suggested to Amy in a soft voice. “I’m never leaving you alone again, Pond.”  
Amy sniffled and stifled her tears. “One more trip, yeah? That’d be okay.” Her eyes were suddenly begging him to take her with them. She couldn’t stay there on her own.

River stood up and urged the Doctor to help her help Amy to her feet. Amy took a moment to get her bearings and grabbed her keys from the hook next to the door to lock up. Still with her arm around Amy’s waist, River and Amy made their way to the TARDIS doors where the Doctor was waiting. 

As they all walked in, the Doctor excitedly whizzed around the console. River urged Amy to sit in the comfy seat by the stairs and walked over to the Doctor with a sly smile on her face. He returned her smile with that of a child and started pulling levers and pushing buttons around the console.

“Alright, Amy, where to? The fifteenth broken moon of the Medusa Cascade? The diamond coral reefs of Kataa Flo Ko? Or how about we drop in on Neil Gaiman, eh? 2001, he should be just about ready to publish American Gods. One of the great classics!” He breathed in, slowed down a bit. “Take your pick.”

River just watched. She hadn’t seen the Doctor this happy in way too long.

“Surprise me, raggedy man.”

Oh, how he’d missed being called that. He looked over at River then at Amy with a soft smile on his face.

“Geronimo.”


End file.
